Thanks to Governor Inslee—and to you!

Good news: our hard work—our advocacy, all of us together—paid off. Governor Inslee has rejected the state legislature’s nonsense proposal to commit our public money to building another fossil fuel gas plant in Washington. At a signing session Friday afternoon, he vetoed that tax giveaway.

The simple truth is that we just don’t need to build more facilities to burn natural gas or any other fossil fuel. The governor’s office just last May released a new study that shows that for Washington to achieve deep carbon reduction, we must reduce dramatically our reliance on fossil fuel gas as an energy source. And we benefit from this commitment to clean energy--Washington’s electricity rates are already the second lowest in the country and we’re the largest producer of clean, renewable energy. We pay less for electricity because water, wind, and sun are free and abundant.

This isn’t the end of the story. Transalta could still plan to build this facility without tax dollars, but we have made it a little harder. If Transalta chooses to move forward, we’ll fight them on that too. For now, let's extend our thanks to Gov. Inslee for doing the right thing!

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Vlad brings varied and deep experience in policy, advocacy, and campaign politics to his work at Climate Solutions. He is responsible for guiding policy development and building an integrated communications, advocacy, and government affairs strategy to foster a clean energy economy in Washington.

Before coming to Climate Solutions, Vlad was Senior Policy Director for the Washington Wildlife and Recreation Coalition, where he successfully secured tens of millions of dollars in state investment in habitat and recreation lands. He was previously a key part of issue advocacy and communications efforts for large companies, including Microsoft and GE, and before that served as AIPAC's Deputy Midwest Political Director. A veteran campaign operative, he has run congressional and state legislative campaigns and worked on races ranging from mayoral to presidential.

Vlad is a graduate of Northwestern University, where he received a degree in political science. In his spare time, Vlad brews (and drinks) beer, listens to opera, and volunteers for the Washington Autism Alliance & Advocacy.

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